My Different Path
by Hellonearth123
Summary: What would happen if JD's mentor left leaving him behind, how would JD be able to cope without his support it's simple he wouldn't
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was another cold day the, wind was whipping through the trees, blowing them from right to left, making a spooky groaning sound. JD's face felt as if daggers had been stabbed into him. He blinked. Once, twice, three times, and watched in dismay as hoards of people rushed in the same direction as him; Sacred Heart.

In horror, JD realised today was going to be another busy day. It was the last thing he needed today. He was already in a bad mood. He had had almost no sleep last night and he had woken up late this morning and didn't have time for breakfast. Suddenly, with no warning, rain began to fall heavily around him. He cursed softly under his breath, realising today wasn't going to be a good day. And all the people rushing were not a good sign either.

JD stepped through the hospital door and into the hustle and bustle that was Sacred Heart. He watched as Elliot and Carla looked at each other panic, written on each of their faces. If he could've laughed he would've by now but his face was too cold so moving it was a tough job. JD scanned the busy crowd for Doctor Cox, not seeing him at all he found himself starting to panic.

There was no way he could survive today without him. Despite Dr Cox being sharp and often rude to him, JD had developed a reliance on him. He shook his head, Dr Cox would probably just be late or something, nothing to worry about. He glanced back at Carla and Elliot and caught their gazes, he then glanced round at everyone else and back at them to indicate that he was distinctly not pleased about all the people. Carla and Elliot both gave him small smiles.

He started to walk over to them both, squeezing between the flocks of people and small children that were in the hospital. He was mind boggled, 'how can such a large amount of people fit into a tiny little space like this' he asked himself, shaking his head. He managed to squeeze through the enormous crowd and stood in front of Carla and Elliot, giving Elliot a small smile.

"So... What's all this then?" he asked Carla.

She merely shrugged. "I suspect someone saw something on the news about cow flu and almost immediately thought to themselves; I have that!"

Elliot giggled slightly.

Despite trying to resist, JD found himself laughing too.

Elliot rolled her eyes, "Stupid newsreaders. I bet if they were the ones working in the hospitals they wouldn't be telling every single member of the American public to come wandering through these doors the minute they got a sniffle!"

"Dr Cox won't be pleased when he sees all these people," JD laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't straight on the phone to ABCNews to ban them from ever mentioning the words 'cow' and 'flu' in the same sentence ever again!"

Carla and Elliot both felt silent and their smiles slipped away.

JD looked from one to another, puzzled.

"JD," Carla began softly, "Haven't you heard?"

"Heard what?" He replied, even more confused.

"Dr Cox quit, he's moved away. He isn't coming back," Carla replied gently.

"What?" JD shot back, eyes wide.

Elliot breathed in slowly and deeply.

"JD," she said, finally breaking the silence. JD looked at her; his face was awash with emotion. The sight of it broke her and Carla's hearts.

"Doctor Cox had... Family trouble... He had to move to be closer to his parents," she said, looking at Carla who nodded.

JD's face slid into a frown. "He left because of me... Didn't he?" He said looking at them both.

Carla shook her head. "No! Why would you think that!" she asked, shocked.

"Well… I'm not exactly Doctor Cox's best friend, as you may have noticed."

Both Carla and Elliot looked at one another and nodded, both saying "Yeah that is true..."

"But he wouldn't leave just because of you, JD," Elliot said.

"Yeah," Carla agreed, "I spoke to him before he went, he came round to tell me. It's not your fault, JD."

"Did he say that?"" JD replied. Carla opened her mouth to answer but JD didn't even wait for it. He turned round, pushing through the people, away from the girls.

"JD!" Elliot shouted, hurrying after him. "Wait!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

But it was too late, by the time Elliot had reached the end of the corridor JD had vanished into one of the hospital's many rooms.

Elliot stomped her foot on the ground. "Frick, Frick, FRICK!" she screamed, causing all nearby doctors to look at her in pure terror and scurry off.

Elliot marched over to Carla, "Nice going, Miss Big Mouth!"

Carla gasped. "Oh... You did not just call me that!" she hissed.

"So what if it did!" Elliot retorted.

Carla tutted. "Listen... I'm from the block... I will knock you into a thousand tiny pieces!" She exclaimed.

Elliot gulped slightly. "Y-you don't scare me," she said, stuttering slightly.

"Well you should be scared," Carla snapped. "Will you just help me find JD instead of arguing with me?"

Elliot nodded. She followed Carla along the busy corridor, being careful to keep a few paces behind her in case Carla decided to 'knock her into a thousand pieces' anyway.

Meanwhile, JD was in one of the empty observation rooms. He slammed the door behind him and hit the wall in frustration.

Suddenly, the door swung open. One of the nurses hurried in.

"JD, I need some help in here!" she shouted. "We've got a suspected outbreak of cow flu…"

JD scowled at the nurse and followed after her. 'Can't a man have some alone time in this god forsaken place!' he thought to himself.

The nurse quickly turned into another room and stood at the edge of the bed. JD stood beside her, looking down at the patient. Suddenly all medical knowledge drained out of him, he couldn't depend on Doctor Cox anymore. He was on his own.

"Ok... Erm…" JD stuttered.

The patient in the bed in front of him was a little girl. She was very pale with tangled blonde hair that hung past her shoulders; she must've only been about four or five. Her mother stood beside the bed, tears running down her cheeks. She looked at JD desperately.

"Please help my daughter," she begged, her eyes brimming with tears.

JD desperately wanted to reassure the mother, promise her that her daughter would be fine now he was here. He wanted to tell her that he knew exactly what he was doing and to set about making the girl better. But his mind was blank. Dr Cox would've known exactly what to do. He'd have sorted it all out. JD wasn't good enough. He never would be without Dr Cox.

And then it happened; the dreaded flat line. And JD just watched. He never moved, never helped the interns. He just stood there, wide eyed, like a deer caught in the headlights. The little girl twitched and flipped but he didn't do anything.

The mother screamed at JD, "DO SOMETHING!"

But he didn't. Every nerve in his body screamed at him, but nothing that worked. He stood there and watched her die...

Seconds later Carla and Elliot ran into the room.

"JD, what are you doing?" Carla screamed at him.

Elliot immediately began CPR on the little girl and Carla began pumping her full of drugs in a frantic attempt to save her life. JD just watched; his eyes glazed over.

The mother was sobbing uncontrollably. She watched in agony as the line on the heart monitor fluttered a little offering false hope before falling back to a final, conclusive flat line.

"Time of death, 9.13am," JD muttered, finally breaking his silence.

The mother began screaming at JD through tears, "How dare you let my little girl die? I'm going to sue you and your hospital into the next century you-"

But her words were lost on JD. Carla led the sobbing woman to a chair and sat her down.

"Get him out of here," Carla ordered Elliot before turning back to the woman and attempting to reassure her that it wasn't JD's fault and nothing could've been done anyway.

Elliot took JD's hand and led him from the room.

When the door closed the shouting began.

"JD, what the hell was that!" Elliot screeched loud enough to destroy his ear drums.

"I honestly don't know…" he said emotionlessly.

Elliot stared at him. "You don't know?" she once again screeched.

JD nodded.

"I can't do it Elliot... I just can't!" he suddenly shouted.

Elliot's mouth formed into a perfect circle. She opened her mouth to retort but found he was already halfway down the hall.

"Frick," she said quietly to herself.

She took a couple of steps forward, as if about to break into a run and chase after him. But after a few paces she stopped dead. There was no point trying to follow him. He needed to be alone and having her around would only make it worse. She considered going back to Carla and telling her what had happened with JD but she didn't think she could face that poor little girl and her sobbing mother. But she had to do something. JD's behaviour was reckless and destructive. It couldn't all be down to Dr Cox leaving, surely? But she couldn't just leave JD to it. Luckily for JD, Carla was right. Even if he had leapt into action upon seeing the little girl, there wasn't much chance he could've saved her anyway. But if this behaviour continued he was going to cause a death and get himself struck off, he wouldn't be able to be a doctor anymore. Elliot could only think of one thing to do.

She found a quiet room, pulled out her cell phone and keyed in Perry Cox's number. She knew Carla had said he didn't want to be contacted but she didn't know what else to do. She lifted the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" she said when he picked up the phone. "It's Elliot. I need your help…"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Elliot babbled on and on for a solid one hour, explaining everything that had happened, before Perry's voice came through the phone.

"I'm on my way," he said and hung up the phone. Elliot smiled to herself. She slipped her cell phone into her bag and skipped off down the corridor.

JD exited his hiding place looked from the left to the right. He sighed and stepped outside the door, closing it after him. He then simply stood there, looking sorry for himself. He knew the reason why what had happened did. It was because he was ignorant; he didn't care about anyone else other than himself. You could say that JD was an exact clone of Doctor Cox. But at least Perry knew what was right and wrong and he was usually there to keep JD on the straight and narrow. JD always respected that and never for one minute questioned him because he was right... Dr Cox was always right.

To JD, Perry Cox was father figure. Not the kind of father that would pick you up and sing lullabies until you fell asleep. More like the kind of father that, if he saw you in a fight, would beat the other person up. But now that he was gone JD felt as if he was without oxygen, without reason. He didn't know how to function...

He understood that he couldn't carry on like this. He was going to kill someone. He was lucky Carla had saved him back there, but she wouldn't always be there to save him. That he had learnt the hard way recently. You couldn't get too comfortable, because if you turned away for a second, the person you didn't even realise you needed so badly would be gone.

He was almost half expecting Elliot to tell him she was leaving too. Or Carla… What if they hated him for what had happened with the girl? He'd shouted at Elliot. He was angry. But what if they were both leaving him too?

He felt as if someone had sucked all the breath from him. As if someone had pulled away the ground from under him. Everyone was going to leave him. There was nothing he could do.

All these thoughts were rushing around JD's head at once and soon enough it gave him a headache.

"Good," he mumbled to himself. He deserved the headache. After all, he did stand there and watch as a little girl died in front of him, and he did nothing. He deserved to die after what he did. JD stopped in the middle of the hallway for a minute, staring at the ground below. The words 'to die' rushed through his mind at a million miles an hour. Maybe that is a good idea, he thought. Maybe then everyone could continue on with their lives without him dragging them down…

To Carla and Elliot he was simply a liability. Just someone they had to keep an eye on, to check he wasn't doing something he shouldn't be. He'd seen the look they'd given each other when that little girl had died. Carla wanted him out of the way; he was a burden to both of them. They didn't need that. They had their own lives to worry about. They didn't need to be responsible for him.

He knew what he had to do. Putting his head down, he walked through the hospital, ignoring anyone who tried to talk to him as he passed. The doors slid opened and he stepped out into the cold. The rain had stopped but the floor was still littered with puddles.

He glanced across the car park, drinking in the sights. If this was the last time he was going to see this place, he was going to make sure he remembered it. But as he looked across he saw him.

Dr Cox was here. He was back.

JD blinked slightly. Were his eyes betraying him? Had Doctor Cox really come back?

He shook his head, sighing to himself. Even if he did come back there was nothing he could do for him now. JD put his head down, walked out of the hospitals car park and kept walking. However, unbeknown to him, Perry was following his every footstep. He was trying to keep as silent as possible as he watched his Newbie turn around a corner and then another one, and finally watched him walk up some stairs. Perry strained his eyes to try to see where he was going but it was no use. He couldn't make out the building at all.

Almost instinctively Dr Cox felt his body pick up speed, trying to catch up with JD. But he was taking so many twists and turns that Perry could hardly keep up. It didn't take long for him to realise that he couldn't see JD anymore and he didn't know where he had gone. Suddenly he heard a voice behind him. He turned round to see Carla running out towards him.

"Perry!" she shouted, coming to a halt in front of him. After a second's hesitation he reached out and she flung her arms around him.

"I thought you weren't coming back!" she said.

"Elliot called…" Dr Cox told her, "She said JD was in trouble…"

Carla caught her breath again. Her hair was all windswept because she had run the entire way.

"You're damn right he's in a mess!" she said, looking around. "Where is he anyway?" she asked, spinning around on the spot to see if she could find him.

Dr Cox shrugged, "I dunno, can't find him anywhere." They both sighed.

"Bambi better not do something stupid," she said, eyeing a person who walked past.


End file.
